Tuesday, 27 January 2015

My idea for my part B adaptation is to create characters for a sitcom who are direct personifications of the different types of alcohol students and overall just young people drink at university or on a night out.

I've added items or merely just edited the design of these characters to add more personality to them and to bring in context through this detail.

I've made the Christopher Reeve rendition of Superman have smaller pants to suit how they dressed in the 70's/80's. They some how saw a man in speedo's as masculine and he-manish but hey, whatever floats their boat.

The 1950's Superman I've done the opposite and made his pants bigger and Simon Cowell-ish, which is the way he would have worn them in that time period.

For Marlon Brando's character Jor-El I've made his outfit glow like it did in the movie because of his omnipotent persona.

Richard Pryor's character Gus would stereotypically have a pen in his pocket, being a computer programmer. And his actual persona as a comedian would stereotypically have a 'rolled up something' as Alan suggested.

Margot Kidder's character Lois Lane was a 70's character so I added the oversized 70/80's collars and added a pen and notebook as she would stereo typically be seen with this as a reporter.

Monday, 26 January 2015

In order to learn how to animate and to just smoothly transition these characters and the text that will be included, I will be watching these two tutorials. With the understanding of how infographics work I may even find better ideas of transitions and ways to present the information I have.

An improved version of the old Superman Character. The hair is more accurate and I've made the character look taller and thinner to match Christopher Reeves physique judged by Margot Kidder's description of him as 'the skinny wasp'.

Friday, 23 January 2015

After my tutorial with Alan today, I got the idea of using a simplistic style of shapes and form to design the characters in my infographic. I've been looking at styles where the body parts are resemblant to the initial starting point of creating a character which for superheros like superman is an upside down triangle with a small circle or square for a head. I may not even attach these body parts together leaving them looking as if they are floating shapes in the air, kind of like Rayman.

Thursday, 22 January 2015

Satoshi Kon was a Japanese film animator and screen director. He is most renowned for his previous works like Tokyo Godfathers and Millennium Actress which were fairly successful in the anime genre at their individual times of release. As a Japanese animator Kon's style reflects the Japanese visual culture with very up tempo scenes and a refined style of anime but in his last few works including Paprika incorporated what seems to be 3d animation to his work in the more complex scenes. In Paprika, dreams and the subconscious is a consistent theme aesthetically expressed through the surreal style Kon used to animate. The morphing and transforming of objects was animated very successfully and worked well for visual spectacle. Also repeating and looping of scenes really helped in depicting this idea of dreams and reality interweaving. The film stars all-Japanese cast of singer and radio personality Megumi Hayashibara, actor and narrator Katsunosuke Hori, Toru Furuya and Toru Emori. Hayashibara voiced Jessie from team rocket in Pokemon and also Ash's Bulbasaur, Pidgeotto and Goldeen.

The film follows a team of psychotherapists in the near future who invented a device allowing one to view and even enter someone else's dream. When people begin to become delusional and witness some of the patients subconsciouses whilst wide awake, they turn to one of their team members subconscious alter-egos for help. Paprika who comes across as the main protagonist is a quirky and eccentric and fun character yet always seems to save the day flawlessly whereas Dr Atsuko Chiba who is the conscious alter-ego of Paprika is the complete opposite, cold, seemingly emotionless and not much fun at all. The film comes across as Atsuko's journey of the discovery of her true self and the similarities her and Paprika really have.

Similarly to the Christopher Nolan film inception I feel Paprika is an attempt to explore the complexities of the human mind, highlight the fact that dreams are one of life's only things that we all as humans experience but can never completely share and to visually demonstrate what would happen if we could share these experiences. In this context the film succeeded however I felt watching the film that what Kon accomplished visually he lacked in dialogue and character interaction. The dialogue was too direct and not creative enough in explaining things. But overall I really enjoyed this film and would recommend it. Although I found the soundtrack abit annoying it suited the scenes it was in. And the storyline was not a simplistic linear one you would expect from an animation so it did well.

Monday, 19 January 2015

George Reeves, 1952 - Superman - Adventures of Superman
After 104 episodes Reeves left the screens as supermanBecause of the height of role he was typecasted and couldnt find workWent into a deep depression and turned to alcohol
Committed suicide at a party he was hosting.

Christopher Reeves, 1978 - Superman - Superman I-IV
Also typecasted to role of superman and couldnt find much work
Began riding horses although being allergic
In 1995 he fell ooff his horse and broke his neck leaving him paralyzed from the neck down
ironic much?
He eventually died of a heart attack just under a decade later

Margot Kidder, 1978 - Lois Lane - Superman I-IV
After the role she got into a car accident which like reeve paralyzed her
she was unable to work for 2 years
she also went into a depression and had a mental breakdown leaving her in a psychiatric ward

Richard Pryor, 1983 - Gus - Superman III
Comedian who actually had an affair with Margot Kidder
As a result of bad reviews after the film was released he began to lose weight
In 1996 he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis
needed a power-operated vehicle similar to Reeve
Later died of heart attack

Marlon Brando, 1978 - Jor-el - Superman I
Was offered 4 million plus a percentage of the movies gross to play 8 min role of Superman's father
The effortlessly made fortune caused his weight to spiral out of control and couldnt get many roles
Lived in a large house away from society with daughter and her boyfriend
His son went to prison for killing his daughters boyfriend
daughter later committed suicide in the large derelict house, found hanging in her room
Eventually died months before Reeve.

Lee Quigley, 1978 - Baby Kal-el - Superman I
Playing Brando's onscreen son he was picked out of many British babies to play the role
Years later it was plastered all-over national news papers that he had died at the age of 14 of Solvent abuse.

Friday, 16 January 2015

Typically because the infographic is about superman I will be using the infamous blue and red colour scheme, similarly to this example above. I have also been looking the different Superman costumes and want to take advantage of the different shades of red and blue they come in. I will change the shade according to the year of the Superman I m talking about.

Thursday, 15 January 2015

To know more about the happenings during the Superman films I'm watching this documentary called 'The Curse of Superman' which talks about the topic in highest detail.
I'm also looking at blogs and other websites that talk about it to get any information the documentary may have missed.

The Scary Truth about Superman

After some words with Alan I've decided to do my infographic on the Curse of the Superman movies. Its almost an urban legend that there is a curse on the character due to the unfortunate events that happen regarding the cast. My infographic will explore this adding facts and humor when it can.

Superman actors

The infographic will mostly be about the actors who played Superman, from when it first came about till recent times and how their lives and careers have been after playing the role.

Adam Elliot is an Australian independent stop-motion animation director and writer. He is best known for his animated shorts Harvie Krumpet, Uncle, Cousin and Brother and of course the feature length film Mary and Max. The very stylized aesthetic to Mary and Max is similar to all of Elliot's other work using his consistent black and white theme and very facially aged and deformed characters. Although the film has subtle humor splashed around throughout, it also has a bleak undertone which is emphasized by his choice of the black and white palette in max's scenes and shown also through the theme of death which is circulated around the storyline frequently with the deaths of Mary's Grandfather, Father, Mother and Max's Neighbor. The film stars Australian comedian Barry Humphries as the Narrator who is best known for his on-stage alter ego as Dame Edna Everage, late American actor Philip Seymour Hoffman as Max, Australian actress and musician Toni Collette as Mary and Australian/American actor Eric Bana as Damian. The story revolves around the lives of Mary an 8 year old girl from Australia unable to find friends and Max a morbidly obese 44 year old suffering from Aspergers syndrome. The film gives an insight on both their lives and shows how they change as a result of their unlikely friendship through sending each other letters. The story also introduces the odd and unfortunate lives of other characters in both their settings such as Damian - Mary's crush from across the street, Len Hislop - Mary's agoraphobic neighbor, Noel and Vera Dinkle - Mary's obsessive father and alcoholic mother and Ivy - Max's partially blind neighbor. I think through this film Elliot is attempting to demonstrate the futility and fastpased nature of life in order to as a result promote valuing relationships with people and making the most frienships. In the film a theme of desolation ran through, almost every character was alone in one form or the other and as a result had their own way of dealing with it. Mary's mother used alcohol to fill the gap in her life, her father used his obsession with his dead birds, even Ivy Max's neighbor used making him soup on Sundays as a way to feel less alone. However, Elliot used the protagonists Max and Mary to show that even at your lowest point in life, a true and loving friend has the ability to create meaning to your existence and fill the void that loneliness and depression creates. The warm soundtrack that usually changes when Mary is onscreen brings a happy vibe to contrast from the dull, bleak and grey coloured visuals and the concept of having black and white in Max's scenes and a slight sepia colour for Mary's works very well, it acts as a visual depiction that Mary brought colour into Max's life. I feel the film achieved its aim perfectly because all aspects of it, the visuals, sound and so on tie into this theme and authenticate it giving the viewer a warm sensation of appreciation for their friendship at the end. I would recommend this film solely so that the audience can also feel satisfying warm feeling also.

The Game-over menu shows how comically bleak and parodic the game is. Instead of saying Game over like a normal child friendly game, this game says 'YOU DIED' in big bold writing and even goes as far to make a corny joke about it.

The game-over seen also shows the score and time taken before the game ended.

Examples of how the icons will be on the screen during gameplay. I was playing around with the compostion and colour of the icons. I chose to go with the candyfloss and rainbow to go with the parodic theme the game has of a kids game, with things being purposefully too cute and sweet.

I think I'm sticking with the first one with the three heads and digits to show the characters life.